I posted this bike in its own progress thread, but this one seems to be the central repository for before and after pictures, so I'll add it here as well. Last year while on vacation, I found this bike hanging in and antique mall in Alabama. The fancy lug work and Campy dropouts pointed to it being something decent, but I knew nothing about the name. Googling FW Evans didn't turn up much, but it was only $40, so I took a chance on it. Once I got the bike home and did more research, I learned that I found a real diamond in the rough. FW Evans had a bike shop in London in the 1920s. Although he died during WWII, the shop continued to operate, first by his wife, then transferring to his store manager. They built bike frames in the basement of the shop and had a good reputation for touring bikes. The business is still in operation today as Evans Cycles. My bike appears to have been made in the early 1970s at the original shop in London. Evans bikes were only sold from that shop, first on Kennington Road, and later on Waterloo Cut. They were never exported, so it is a mystery how my bike ended up in Alabama. One theory is that someone came to England and bought the bike to tour the country and brought it home with them afterwards. There was a rack on the bike, so that is plausible. The shop was located near a train station, so it is not hard to imagine someone flying into Heathrow and taking the train into the city to pick up their new bike. Then they could catch a train out to the countryside to start their tour.
When I got the bike home and disassembled, I scrubbed the frame with Barkeeper's Friend and a 3M pad to remove the pealing paint and surface rust. Then I built it up with parts that I have on hand to see whether I had a winner or a dud. The verdict was I definitely had a winner. The shallow seat and headtube angles give it a stable, comfortable ride, but still sporty. I ended up riding all last summer in its "rat rod" condition. This spring, I took it back apart and started work on the paint. With other obligations and weather conditions, I was only working on it a little at a time, with long breaks in between, so the paint had plenty of time to harden in my hot pole barn. I used Rustoleum paint, with Color Shot Pixie Dust for a bit of sparkle, followed by Rustoleum clear. I used a gold paint pen to outline the lugs. The final build was completed just last week. I used a period correct SR crankset, Shimano Crane rear and 600 front deraileurs, Sun Tour Power shift levers, a Nitto stem, and SR Randonneur bars. The Campy seat post and Wienmann brakes are original to the bike. And of course it has a Brooks B17. I am really pleased with how it turned out.
The bike hanging in the antique shop. I was holding my phone up to try to get a picture of the name on the decal.
This was a little too much "patina" for me. Thankfully, stem and seatpost came out.
Decals from H Lloyd Cycles
All done! I wanted to emulate the 1960s Lotus team colors and highlight the beautiful lugs.
